philosophy-obooko-mind0016

community and subject to the rules and the ethos of said
community. It has no "objective" or ontological weight.
Events and actions are classified as achievements, in other
words, as a result of value judgements within given
historical, psychological and cultural contexts. Judgement
has to be involved: are the actions and their results
negative or positive in the said contexts. Genocide, for
instance, would have not qualified as an achievement in
the USA – but it would have in the ranks of the SS.
Perhaps to find a definition of achievement which is
independent of social context would be the first
achievement to be considered as such anywhere, anytime,
by everyone.
Affiliation and Morality
The Anglo-Saxon members of the motley "Coalition of
the Willing" were proud of their aircraft's and missiles'
"surgical" precision. The legal (and moral) imperative to
spare the lives of innocent civilians was well observed,
they bragged. "Collateral damage" was minimized. They
were lucky to have confronted a dilapidated enemy.
Precision bombing is expensive, in terms of lives - of
fighter pilots. Military planners are well aware that there
is a hushed trade-off between civilian and combatant
casualties.
This dilemma is both ethical and practical. It is often
"resolved" by applying - explicitly or implicitly - the
principle of "over-riding affiliation". As usual, Judaism
was there first, agonizing over similar moral conflicts.
Two Jewish sayings amount to a reluctant admission of
the relativity of moral calculus: "One is close to oneself"